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By Kenya M Yarbrough
(November 17, 2008)
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      *Singer Michael Keith, former member and founder of the R&B group 112, is looking out for a new number, number 1.

      Keith was formerly one-fourth of the Grammy winning group from Atlanta that had great success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

      112, which consisted of high school buddies Marvin Scandrick, Quinnes “Q” Parker, Daron Jones, and Keith, scored chart toppers with hit singles such as “Cupid,” “Only You,” “Dance With Me,” and “Peaches & Cream” and became the first and most successful R&B group to out of Sean “Diddy” Combs Bad Boy label. With major success and a well-received disc “Pleasure & Pain” in 2005, Keith found he had to break ties with the crew just last year.

      “Unfortunately the group is no longer a group. I had to leave because I found out that certain member of the group took a publishing check and it was made clear that it intended for [me] and Slim.”

      As reported in EUR (October 29, 2008), the singer’s trust was broken and he told EUR’s Lee Bailey that though he hasn't given the go ahead on any legal action, he has left the group and is not looking back.

      “I put so much of myself into 112 and the brand and into these guys, for it to be a situation that boils down to simply money, that’s something I can’t forgive,” he said.

      “I’m all about trust. Once you lose that trust with me, it’s time for me to make a move and to focus on my solo career,” he said. “Everybody else was focused on the solo career and outside endeavors and I just decided it was time for me to make that change, go into solo mode, and come out with [a] solo album.”

     Keith’s self-titled solo project dropped on September 30 and is available on his website MichaealKeithonline.com. The site takes visitors to Amazon.com and iTunes to purchase the album online. While he proudly described the project and his hopes for his solo career, Keith admitted that it was never his intention to be on his own, even though the other three members had already ventured on their solo projects while the group still existed.

      “I was so group-oriented, that the last thing that I had on my mind was to go solo,” he said. “I was so reluctant. My whole goal was to make sure that 112 was in line with the Temptations, the Four Tops, those type of groups that live in infamy. Why be a great solo artist when I could be in the best group?”

      So instead of being a part of a Temptation-like group status, Keith has challenged himself to take it to legendary status as a solo artist.

      “Now I’m going to have to go into Marvin Gaye mode, Sam Cooke mode, Donny Hathaway mode in order to stake my claim as a legend,” he said. “I believe I have the gift, and I have the music, and I have the fortitude to go forward and be the artist that I was put on this planet to be.”

      The lead single on the disc is called “No More Tears” and Keith described the lyrics as a reassurance that there are some good guys still out there.

      “It’s a very old-school-sounding song, it has a familiarity to it. It’s a very beautiful song,” he described. “I’m all about the song being very beautiful and it almost having this ominous feel to it – though I know ‘ominous’ has negative connotation to it – but it has this feel about it that if you don’t get it right in love, it can really go south. I try to put a lesson in each one of my songs. Listen to this music and understand this music.”

      Keith spoke about another song on the disc he’s rather proud of called “Father” which talks about reconciled patriarchal relationships.

      “‘Father’ is one of those songs that people need to hear so that they can learn something. It gives you that opportunity to find an answer or some kind of solution to the problem It may not work for everybody, but it’s a song that needs to come out if for no other reason than to help other people through their situation.”

       Go to www.michaelkeithonline.com to check out Keith’s debut “Michael Keith.”

 


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